Man Finds $870,000; Village of Rothschild Didn't Believe Him

The Marathon County man who found a bank bag containing 870-thousand dollars in checks and cash says the owner at first didn't believe he had the money.

John Jazdzewski says he found the bag sitting in the middle of a street around four o-clock in the morning January 28th. Four hours later, he called the bag's owner -- the Village of Rothschild.

He says the clerk at village hall didn't believe him.

It wasn't long before police called him on his cell phone.

Jazdzewski says he was told a police officer who was to deposit the money in a bank had set the bag on his squad car's trunk around eleven the night before -- then got a call to an emergency and took off.

Citing security reasons, Rothschild Police Chief Bill Schremp refuses to talk about details of how the bag got lost or how much was inside, other than it was mostly checks that people had used to pay their property taxes to the village.

Schremp says his agency knew the money was missing, and people were looking for it.

A police committee will decide how to honor Jazdzewski for his good deed -- probably a special plaque and maybe a reward.

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